Bateman Stops By Williamsburg

Fields Questions On Bridge, Gulf

December 27, 1990|By MARK FELSENTHAL Staff Writer

GLOUCESTER — At a town meeting Wednesday, Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st, answered concerns that veered from Saudi Arabia to the Coleman Bridge.

Calling it "a longshot," Bateman told a crowd of about 30 people in the Colonial Courthouse that he would try to obtain federal funds for the bridge over the York River because of its proximity to the U.S. Naval Weapons Station at Yorktown and because its height is required by Navy vessels that must pass under it.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Friday, December 28, 1990. A headline in Thursday's paper incorrectly indicated that Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st, held a town meeting in Williamsburg. The meeting was Wednesday in Gloucester.

But Bateman said the Coleman Bridge, which is scheduled to be widened beginning in 1993 at an estimated cost of around $94 million and the likely imposition of tolls, was one of almost 500 highway projects that could claim some kind of federal importance.

"It's unlikely I'll be able to do it," he said.

Responding to questions about whether he would help seek federal funding for an upriver crossing of the York rather than improvements to the Coleman Bridge, Bateman said he would go to bat for that too, as long as the Department of Defense has no security problems with a highway that crosses the weapons depot on the York County side of the river.

Much of the discussion at the town meeting concerned the Middle East and the national economy. Bateman took some broad sides concerning the pay raise members of Congress recently agreed to give themselves.

One man, who said he worked at Fort Eustis, called the combination of the pay raise and cuts in military and government personnel "a kick in the behind."

In a month, he said, "I will be in those trenches in Saudi Arabia. I will not see any congressmen in those trenches there with me."

Bateman said he supported the pay raise to $125,000 a year because raises for judges and top civil servants were tied to it. It was important to offer high salaries to attract good people to those jobs, he said.

On the crisis in the Persian Gulf, Bateman said he believes it is important that the United States be willing to use military force. Bateman called President Bush's handling of the crisis "brilliant," saying Bush had successfully united a wide variety of countries in opposing Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

The congressman also said he believes the president should have the power to commit forces to combat without waiting for a vote in Congress.

Bateman also criticized the media for a negative view of the nation's economy. Predictions of a recession had weakened consumer confidence to the point where people weren't willing to buy anything, he said.